First and foremost, several members of Canyon Velo continued to impress the So Cal peloton through the fantastic support provided to the State Road Individual Time Trial and Team Time Trial races through our team’s co-sponsorship of these races.
Hats are off from throughout the So Cal peloton to our CV President, Carl Moler, for his fantastic organization of the volunteer crew which made the races possible. Kudos to the CV members who provided such great service to the racers at both State TTs.
Doug Auslander, Jim Edmiston, Sharon Edmiston, Rob Kelly, Susan Kissee, and Paul Scaglione volunteered at the State TTT, and Alex Chang, Wes Kridle (and son), Bill Leek, Nancy Moler, Mike Son, and Kevin Strand worked the State TT.
A special thanks goes out to Pat Meagher and Brett Chambers, who along with Carl worked both events. We should also not forget to mention that Rich Savitt served as the Head USAC Official at both races as well.
As to the racing, Canyon Velo again made a huge impact on the race by entering several riders and coming away with lots of medals, including eight State Championship Jerseys.
SCNCA State Individual Time Trial Report
My favorite race was the Men’s 60+ Individual Time Trial where CV member, and current CV Rider of the Year, David Stanton, destroyed a very talented field to win the State Championship Jersey. Dave’s victory over the odds on favorite and perennial State TT winner by over a minute was one of the big stories of the day.
In another great race, Bob Burris and Glen Wells took on a hotly contested field in the Men’s 110+ Tandem event to beat a favored team to defend CV’s championship in this race from the year before. Bob is a veteran at this event, but Glen is a neophyte, but just like Danny Davisson the year before, under Bob’s captainship, Glen put out the watts around the course to secure the victory and his first State Championship Jersey!
CV also had two other podium finishers as Paul Leek and his partner Dave Gibson (a regular rider on CV’s Saturday ride) took silver in the Men’s 70+ Tandem event, while CV member Joe Peterson took the bronze in the Men’s 55+ Individual Time Trial. In Joe’s race, it turned out that the winner was actually from out of the State and therefore not qualified for the State Championship, so Joe was actually in second place for the State Jersey.
We will hear more from Joe Peterson soon, as he and David Stanton are about ready to hit the big time with their 4 man RAAM team. Not to be outdone, we will also hear more from Paul Leek as I understand he is planning to defend his World 6 hour TT championship this November. BTW, the “young guy” on Joe and David’s RAAM team, a 27 year old Cat 2 named Cory Lockwood, rocked the event by winning the PRO 1-2 Individual Time Trial in record time over some very significant competition!
CV member Ryan Mongan also rode a strong race, fresh off of his impressive overall win at the LA Tri Championship Express race a couple of weeks ago. Ryan put in a solid ride to finish with a very fast time in one of the largest fields of the day in the Cat 3 race against lots of younger riders.
For Susan and I, it was a last minute decision to enter the tandem race because my training this Spring has been focused on the Team Time Trial. As a result, we did not train for the tandem at all, unless you call two rides sitting off the back of the Sunday morning river trail ride as training. Nevertheless, we decided to enter for fun and were willing to put out what we could do against whomever had prepared for the event. But it turned out that it did not matter, as on the last day for sign-ups, there was still one mixed tandem category with no entries. So the question was, do we enter our age group underprepared, or enter the lower age group category with no entrants? We opted for the lower age category and in the end, raced unopposed. So… it is hard to lose when you are unopposed. I think Carl calls that “stealing” a jersey.
Susan rode great and really did a nice job staying focused on the race. I will say for my part, however, that I suffered tremendous cramps at the end of our tandem race. Because of that it took us almost as long to ride the 6 miles back to the start from the finish as it did to race the entire 23 mile course. I really haven’t been in that much pain on a bike since the 2013 Stagecoach TTT. Ryan, Paul, and Bob will remember how much pain I was in for the first half of that race. On second thought, the 2012 L’Etape Du California was also up there in my cycling memory book of pain.
What is a Team Time Trial?
Before I report on the State Team Time Trial, let me explain the Team Time Trial race to you. The Team Time Trial is very different from the Individual Time Trial which tests a riders’ individual strength against the clock. The Team Time Trial brings team strategy into the equation. In a Team Time Trial, each team’s riders start and ride together, at one or two minute intervals from other teams, working together to get around the course in the shortest time.
How do they work together? The team members ride in a line, and teammates rotate in and out of the front of the group to take advantage of opportunities to draft (allowing each rider to ride at the front to block the wind for teammates and then to return into the formation to rest and conserve energy).
The time at the finish in a 2 person Team Time Trial is taken when the second rider crosses the line. In a 4 person Team Time Trial, the time is taken when the third rider crosses the line, so a 4 person team may lose one person, but must finish with 3 riders.
SCNCA State Team Time Trial Report
The sentimental favorites at the Team Time Trial were Paul Leek and his dad Bill Leek, who raced together in the 120+ 2-man event. In fact, Paul and his dad caused quite a stir, with most everyone in the TT world giving them lots of shouts and encouragement. After finishing, Paul told us that Bill was the “fastest old guy” there! We believe it.
Bob Burris, Dave Stanton, and I, along with another “friend of Canyon Velo”, Bruce DePriester, had a most interesting experience in the 4-man 240+ Team Time Trial. We signed up early and then noticed on the sign-ups that other races were adding teams, but our race wasn’t.
On paper, our team looked pretty good, as we had last year’s 55+ Individual Time Trial champ in David, last year’s 60+ Individual Time Trial champ in Bruce, a member of last year’s 110+ Tandem Time Trial championship team in Bob, and I was last year’s 55+ Individual Track Pursuit champ. Because of this, a couple of the guys who signed up for 120+ 2-man teams told us that they decided to race in the 2-man event because they thought that racing against us in the 4-man meant racing for 2nd place.
Because of this we had our category all to ourselves, so we decided to make a race of it by trying to better the times in the 220+ 4-man (the next younger age group than ours) and 120+ 2-man (the same age group, but only 2-man instead of 4).
In the end, we not only claimed the State 4-man 240+ TTT State Championship, but bested the time of the fastest 120+ 2-man team, and also posted a faster time than the winning team in the younger 220+ 4-man category. Our time of 52:21 beat the fastest 220+ 4-man team by 10 seconds, and outpaced the fastest 120+ 2-man team by 1 minute 53 seconds. Needless to say, we were pleased with that result.
The race itself was a typical 4-man race, where some were stronger than others and we had to really work together to bring three guys to the line in the fastest time. David, of course was super strong. I had a good day as well. Bob came off early as he had equipment issues, and Bruce fought like nobody’s business to stay with us. Our fast time was really a testimony to Bruce’s dogged determination to fight to stay with us, and fight he did!
Overall SCNCA State Time Trial Championship Summary
Canyon Velo received a total of 8 State Championship Jerseys and 10 podium places at the SCNCA State Time Trial Championships. Two State Championship Jerseys each went to Bob Burris, Ed Kissee, and David Stanton; a single State Championship Jersey also went to Glen Wells and to Susan Kissee; and State Championship podium places went to Paul Leek and Joe Peterson.
All in all, the State Time Trials were a great experience for Canyon Velo. Not only was our co-sponsorship of the race impressive to all, but our racers again made a mark on the event. This is not something to take lightly, or for granted, as there have been many years where success hasn’t come as frequently as it seems to have in the past couple of years. Winning or not, however, it is a pleasure to be teammates with such a fine group of people as we have on CV, to which I say, thank you Canyon Velo!
Epilog: Other Race Results of Interest
In addition to the State Championship successes, I am also hearing that Canyon Velo has been doing very well in other disciplines of late. Below are some of the recent results I have heard of:
George Tomasich finished third overall at Breathless Agony on May 2, 2015.
Ryan Mongan won the overall and the age group championship in the LA Tri Championship Express Triathlon on May 9, 2015.
Danny Davisson won the overall and the age group at the Heartbreak Double Century on May 23, 2015.
Ralph Bonin won the 50+ Planet Ultra King of the Mountain cycling series on May 23, 2015.